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It’s probably safe to say Larry Fitzgerald isn’t 100 percent healthy. But coach Bruce Arians said while the veteran wide receiver is getting an MRI today — he didn’t specify for what — the move was precautionary and the hope is that Fitzgerald practices later this week.

“I’d be shocked if he misses a game at home,” Arians said of Fitz.

Home, in this case, is not University of Phoenix Stadium but Fitzgerald’s home state of Minnesota, where the Cardinals visit Sunday in a crucial game for NFC playoff hopes with both teams. The Vikings are reeling, losing four straight after opening the season 5-0. You know where the Cards are. But Fitzgerald (whose Cardinal teams are 0-4 in the regular season in their trips to Minneapolis) loves the chance to play in front of those hometown fans. Plus he ran off the field OK after yesterday’s win. That’s not everything, but it wasn’t like he was limping around in the locker room.

Arians said Fitzgerald was “sore,” but like linebacker Alex Okafor, he should practice either Wednesday or Thursday. Arians said there were no significant injuries coming out of Sunday’s win. He also said safety Tyrann Mathieu (shoulder) is day-to-day and could practice this week. Mathieu also could finally discard the knee brace he’s been wearing, although he will need to wear a shoulder harness when he plays.

“We should have everybody back for this one,” Arians said.

The Cardinals are also eligible to bring back either running back Chris Johnson or safety Tyvon Branch to practice this week. Both could play Dec. 4 against the Redskins. Only one can be brought back from IR — Arians said special teamer/linebacker Alani Fua is also a possibility — and a decision on who to get back has not yet been made. Once one player from IR practices, that burns up a team’s choice, even if he doesn’t make it into a game.

27 Responses
to ““I’d be shocked” if Fitzgerald misses game”

Bring back Fua, he’s led the ST in tackles last two seasons.
Johnson isn’t going to get carries if Ellington isn’t and Swearinger and Jefferson are playing lights out.
Special teams, though supposedly a focal point this offseason, are terrible.

It was very cool, after the game, to hear Larry Fitzgerald talk about one of my boyhood idols when talking about the great Larry Wilson. I can still see Larry Wilson, with his two broken hands, intercepting pass on the cover of Sports Illustrated; One tough hombre….

Moreover, Fitz is evolving to the point where mere words become insignificant when describing his entirety, so I won’t say a word.

Such a warrior. He leaves the game with what looks like it could be a serious injury ( and please, lord, don’t let it be ) but he returns and goes on to lead the team in receiving, putting everything he has to give out there for his team. We are bearing witness to one of the all-time greats, folks. And not just an all-time great for the Cardinals. One of the all-time greats of ALL TIME. I will be forever grateful to Denny Green for making Larry Fitzgerald a Cardinal. And forever grateful to the Cardinals organization for keeping him a Cardinal for his career – which I really do hope has a few more years to go.

I hate to seem like I am taking this opportunity to take a jab at Floyd, but…..I do find it disappointing that with Fitz as such a great model to learn from, Floyd had not become more by this time. Fitz had that same opportunity when Boldin was here and Fitz used that opportunity to learn whatever he could from him. And we saw how Fitz grew during his early years here. It is a shame that Floyd has not evolved further with one of the great WR’s of all time sitting at the locker right next to his every day.

Can’t lose Fitz! While Floyd had a good game Sunday we need both of our big receivers if we expect to have future success and Fitz is SO MUCH MORE than just a receiver. Carson has to have protection and without replacement players for our O-line, we need offensive guys who can (and will)put their face in the fire and get dirty blocking for our run game as well making way for the other TEs and receivers; NOBODY does it better than Fitz!
We’ll hope that after some rest and work with the trainers, a good massage and steam, the anticipation of going home to Minnesota will be the healing vibe needed to sooth away the soreness and put a renewed spring in his step. Now that we are on the upswing (kinda) we need to build on our momentum. We need to bring back Chris as insurance and to give our offense some more kick. We depend on Larry and David too much to not have them for the home stretch…and everybody knows it!

I’ve watched power rankings for years (you’ve seen my posts about them) and I’ve come to two conclusions.

1.The person making the power ranking is going to do everything they can to justify their favorite teams being higher than they should be and their least favorite teams to be lower than they should be.

2. The only time I’ve ever completely agreed with a Power ranking was the week after the Super Bowl, when the rankings aligned with the actual results.

That’s my two cents, but with inflation, it’s probably worth a lot less 🙂

One more. I’d like one more. Then another, but I’ll be satisfied right now with one against the Vikings.

Dynosoar…
Actually, I put little into so-called “power rankings”. There are so many, and many sites or sports news, have many contributors with varied opinions and few are objective. I do watch trends, and tend to put more weight on the opinions of explayers, who actually have some knowledge of the subject, but, still have personal biases. However, when a team drops from No.1, beginning the season to out of the top 20 at mid-point and NOBODY has anything to say about that team–good, bad, or otherwise. I begin feeling like there’s a lot more to it than just injuries, poor communication between the QB and receivers, etc,, it’s like the team isn’t worthy of even being commented on and the organization doesn’t even care!
In the past, we’ve had injuries and it was the next man up…OR, Keim has gone out and found somebody immediately. This year that hasn’t happened and the speculation is that he is working on his own plan that isn’t the same as the one the organization sold the fans.
Power Rankings are about as reliable as the Polls. They are seductive and can be kinda fun, if your team is “rising”. Still, I keep thinking about BA’s elevator ride and, at times feel like I’ve just gotten off some “Tower of Terror” amusement park ride!

Well, I don’t know if I go that far. I think our defense has been up to the task this season. So, yes, while the Seahawks maintain their level of excellence on defense, I think the Cardinals have kept pace on that side of the ball. It is the other side of the ball where we have fallen well short. Wilson got off to a horrible start this year and as the injuries piled up, he was just a shell of himself. But suddenly, he seems to be shaking it off and getting his mojo back – just in time for that 2nd half run that has become so automatic with Seattle.

But down here? Palmer seems to have reverted to his early 2013 form and is turning the ball over too much. With a TD – INT ration of….what, 11-9? Please. Our win loss record ain’t the only thing that is hovering right around the .500 mark.

OK, now here comes the “yeah, but” – the 3 wins were against the Jets and the 49ers twice. Horrible teams. The loss and the tie came against good to better teams.

It has nothing to do with negativity. That is REALITY. Look, if Seattle were getting fat against nothing but losing teams, we’d be all over that, pointing that out left and right. But losing teams are ALL we’ve beaten this year. Again – reality. So, let’s keep that in mind.

Our reality will change a bit if we can score wins against Minny and Atlanta in the next two games.

Looks like Butler threatened to release the nekkid pictures of someone again and got re-signed. I don’t get it. Quigley had a better average and net than Butler, and was doing fine with the holding. I don’t get it.

I still miss Zastudil. As punters go, he was the best. He had a knack for pinning teams at less than 10 yards.

Don’t really understand the purpose of the IR rules. I mean, given that you have to put the player on the list for a pretty long time, why limit them to bringing only one back? It’s not like teams are going to be faking injuries to players if it means giving up their services for two months.

Sure, if you aren’t willing to put the player on IR and give up his services for an extended period, then you should have to keep him on the active roster or release him. I understand not having the equivalent of a short-term “disabled list” like in baseball, but why not let anyone who is put on IR be brought back after the designated number of weeks? (And yes, I realize that up until recently, NONE of the players could be brought back, so allowing one to be brought back is better than before.)

Re: Zastudil, I liked him too, but notice that he never played again after we released him. So it’s not like we were releasing a Pro Bowl punter in his prime.

as I stated in my rather quick 2 point summation of the Cards/Seattle game- the block of Quigley’s punt was totally unacceptable. Quigley looked like he was trying to boom a 50 yarder when a pooch kick was all that was required. Now he’s gone and rightfully so.

In watching the Giants’ game against Cincy, one thing boggles my mind. Everyone knows that Manning is going to Beckham and they complete passes with room to spare. We have two very speedy receivers in JJ and Brown and neither can get clear in spite of other options for Palmer. I realize that Beckham may end up being the greatest receiver of all-time but can’t we complete any easy pass plays to anyone but Larry??

Come on Arians / Kiem you have to do better then that. I agree full heartedly with Kevin from Mesa. My worst nightmare has returned !!!!!!!!!!!!; 35 yard rockets, blocked punts and fumbled snaps on field goals. What am I missing; I guess every team should have a guy like Butler . Must be a great team guy in the locker room !!!!!!!!!!! DRAFT A PUNTER KIEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if you want a field goal kicker, check into Justin Medlock from the CFL. Set all sorts of records for his accuracy and points. An absolute sure bet. We’d have two more wins with Medlock kicking. 7 years ago I emailed a note for the Cards to check into Cameron Wake from the CFL because of his pass rush. I guess he turned out not bad in Miami. DO US A FAVOR AND CHECK OUT THE FILM ON MEDLOCK KIEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I remember our running back K. Williams was ran over and the block came from the middle and not from the edge. I feel safe in saying Butler and most NFL punters will also have their punt blocked on that play. Am I forgetting something?

Butler use to be horrible in his time to get the ball off, but definitely made improvements in that area. Butler is my least favorite Cardinal and I have called for him to be replaced sooooooooo many times that I have lost count. To be honest I do not even know our new punter name. He has not been bad, but he also does not seem like our long term answer at punter.

I am praying they brought Butler in and worked him out and he wowed them and will wow us, as I hate to think they brought him back just to torture me some more. Our special team coordinator scares me more than any other member on our team or support staff right now.

Go Cards ! Cardinals 20 – Vikings 10 as long as we do not have more than 1 turnover.

georgiebird, you are wrong. The blocked punt was not Quigley’s fault, it was the blocker’s fault. The punter is looking down at the ball when he is punting. Every punter in the league would have had a punt blocked.

Literally the only thing I can think of why Butler is back is the FG holding. Perhaps he and Catanzaro just had better chemistry and Catanzaro liked the way Butler held. That has to be the reason because nothing else makes sense.

I’ve been saying that for a while. Our defense has been pretty good, but too often I see players wide open against us. But I rarely see a Cardinal receiver 15-20 yards downfield and wide open in the middle of the field. So either Palmer is threading the ball between defenders, or having to lead the receiver just right, or having to throw it over their shoulder along the sideline so that the receiver is the only one who has a play — but it’s also a tough play and so a lot of those end up incomplete.

Or at least it feels that way — maybe it’s just selective memory. But it seems like even marginal QB’s like Kaepernick find open receivers against us.

I think bringing Butler back is just SUCH a bad move for an organization that has truly changed its culture by making so many good moves over the past decade.

Butler is a below average punter, period. End of discussion. No debate to be had. We know this because we’ve been watching his sorry ass for the last 3 seasons.

How in the name of all that is good and decent can it be so hard to find a better punter than this guy??? The answer is it can’t be. So the fact that they still haven’t done it after all this time….I’m sorry, it just comes across as…..un-inspired. And rather cavalier.

They tried ONE other punter. And when that doesn’t work, they run right back to Butler – the un-disputed master of the 37 yard punt.

This season is already teetering on the brink. All we need is ONE more loss during which Butler and his act played a significant role…..and I dread the reaction. Because that will be absolutely in-excusable.

@EricG,
Don’t blame Kerwynn. He was in there due to an injury- blame the coach who gave him the bad matchup.
Also, Quigly should have had the ball out before the blocking problem occurred. You are failing to take into account the game situation as did Quigley and the coaches.

Can’t get anything by you! Ha. Actually, I agree re wins v bad teams. But you only play the schedule that’s in front of you. Even so, 3-1-1 is the recent record. Tack on Minn in and you’ll “say, ok, just one more, please Carson” lol, me too. Looking for 20-17 win…then we’ll see…